“The nature of Bulgaria is beautiful, very virgin. It simply invites you to make a village wherever you settle - somewhere, far from the vicious world. This is one of the motives - to escape from the failed society and indulge in various exciting practices, which range from self-knowledge, self-study, self-development to severe intoxication with various forms of psychotropic substances“. This was commented on “This Morning“ by social anthropologist Haralan Alexandrov, after a society was established near Kalofer, performing occult and magical practices and rituals. Its members are supposed to have fallen into hallucinogenic psychotic states of consciousness.
„This is not a Bulgarian phenomenon at all, by the way. This is simply the Bulgarian version that my colleagues and I observe of the „New Age“ wave of the last century in the Western world - especially in California, where it is becoming almost mainstream“, pointed out Alexandrov.
„There, engaging in spiritual practices and using psychotropic substances is something of a normalized practice and is part of this longing to go beyond the boundaries of the known. This ideology is very attractive to people who are quite developed, who are simply not happy in this inconsolable material world“, he explained.
„It usually starts with a feeling that the world is somehow defective, that there is something imperfect in it, that it is damaged. These are very old gnostic ideas, very ancient - and a search for the true path“, the anthropologist added.
“ In Bulgarian culture there are traditional methods of intoxication. We hold on to rakia and in this sense this culture is invincible. This is marginal, this is somewhere on the periphery. The heart of Kalofer and to a large extent of Bulgarian traditional culture is structured around the use of rakia. And with the ice dance. We have our esoteric practices, which, however, because they are accepted and traditional, enjoy great approval“, commented Haralan Alexandrov.
While, in his words, these strange things, “that people do, the strange symbolism, all this closedness and esotericism, all this mysticism“, seem to remain distant and misunderstood in our country.
“There are many risks for people who are vulnerable, who are dependent or who seek dependence, have a need to place themselves in dependence on authority and for some reason do not feel well-realized or well-accepted in their social environment. This is something like a refuge“, the specialist pointed out.
In his words, part of the problem is finding meaning – when you leave the survival mode and stop fighting day by day.
„When we don't have a common picture of the world, we don't have a big story, we don't have - this is very important, a traditional, sustainable and widely accepted, so to speak, institutionalized spirituality, such as religion. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is trying to return to this field through the idea of education, which you see is far from being accepted unambiguously and is still developing“, commented Haralan Alexandrov.
He specified that in the modern world this function is performed by psychotherapy.
„There is already quite good psychotherapy in Bulgaria. There is a very large increase in the demand for such services among the upper middle class in the cities. Mainly due to the high levels of anxiety that people experience for economic, social, and increasingly political reasons, not to mention geopolitical. The world is simply very uncertain“, the social anthropologist pointed out.
“And these communities, these societies give a seemingly easy, very tempting answer and promises -“Come to us, everything will be wonderful. We know the way, we will support you.“ Many of the people I have observed actually receive such support. I have not studied this particular case. The figure of the shaman, who is a foreigner – a sorcerer“ is interesting, he also commented.
“Usually there is an element of isolation, since part of the promise is “join us, you must break ties with the vicious and fallen world“. But it is very important to say that this selection is not possible if there is no autoselection. At some level, people who choose this type of life - to leave society and join a group that can become a sect - right, the line is a bit fluid, it could just be a community and they can come back and function successfully, Haralan Alexandrov noted.
„The limit is abuse and control. The sect is a totalitarian organization. Here the promise is that it will solve all your problems. In this sense it is a totalitarian organization — that it will solve your psychological, social, emotional. There is always the idea that we are going beyond the material, we are going beyond money“, he pointed out.
„Certainly these people are not stupid. They are aware to some extent and therefore we must accept that this is a choice that is made to a large extent voluntarily, but that does not mean that it is informed. What can be done is always the same answer — education“, the social anthropologist noted.
„One of all the studies on people in deep depression, who feel betrayed, failed, who are addicted, for example to gambling — this is the other scourge that is currently on the surface of public attention — and which sometimes end in suicides… The main characteristic is that someone around them, someone close, has failed to notice it in time. This is a concern for the community. We cannot save individuals individually“, noted Haralan Alexandrov.
„And since the institutions are very weak, as we see with very low trust, to assign excessive expectations to the school, the church, the police, which in this case become active and recognize this as drug addiction, as abuse of psychotropic substances — this will not solve the problem. We must start taking care of the people around us and activate these natural social networks. Not in the sense of the Internet, but in reality, where we live with other people. And to react when people give signals that they are in trouble, that they are confused, that they are anxious, that they have lost their way and direction. "This is what needs to happen," the specialist added.
“Certainly, when they want money, when they want to take control of you and deny you normal social connections and relationships, that's a very bright red light that something is wrong,“ he said.